There are times to try new things. Times to taste different flavors, experiment with products, seek out something you've never encountered before...And sometimes, you just want to know what the best option is. The easy choice. The go-to. The everyday variety you know will work when you need it, and rely on every time. Throughout the next few months, ManMade is seeking out the best affordable bottles of a variety of spirits that work well in your home bar, but know you can grab at the store the next time you head to a friend's house or a party.

Now that it's officially fall, it's time to put away the gin and tequila of summer, and embrace the ultimate cool weather spirit: whiskey. Over the next few weeks,

There are times to try new things. Times to taste different flavors, experiment with products, seek out something you've never encountered before...

And sometimes, you just want to know what the best option is. The easy choice. The go-to. The everyday variety you know will work when you need it, and rely on every time.

Now that it's officially summer, let's apply that search to a great bottle of gin. Gin is a particularly diverse spirit. Besides Scotch whisky, I can't think of one that has a broader spectrum of flavors. And different bottles will showcase the distiller's creativity and play better with certain ingredients. But there is one bottle that I recommend for almost any cocktail that calls for London Dry Gin; the thing I would take to a party or use in a punch or batch drink for a big group.

For years, I didn't think I liked a gin and tonic. Actually, for a while, I thought it was gin in general that I couldn't stand, but some wiser friends helped me learn with some really stunning gin-centric cocktails, and I quickly moved away from vodka in favor of gin's special aromatic and botanicals qualities. So, then I figured I just didn't care quinine-heavy tonic water, but that didn't make sense, since I'm particularly drawn to mineral and bitter flavors in cocktails and other beverages. Maybe it was the combo of the two...but by this point, I was already committed, so I was determined to figure out what was going awry, once and for all.

Whether you like yours mixed with a splash of tonic, some soda and lemon, or stirred with vermouth and a twist, we can all agree: gin is indeed the spirit of spring. And throughout its history, its been proposed to cure everything from the black plague to malaria.

These days, the throwback "artisanal" cocktail scene can be easy to mock, what with its arm garters and ____ + ____ names and all. those. tinctures. But, don't forget that just a very short time ago, a "mixed drink" typically meant something frozen, blended, and saturated with sugar, with colors so unnatural they rivaled 90s candy aisles, and drinks named for sex acts and bizarro body parts.

If our current cocktail culture is a throwback to the post-prohibition era of WWII and its aftermath, what exactly happened in the middle there? What was going on with those three or four decades where baby boomers ordered neon slushies at airports and shopping malls?

If you're ready for a new kind of DIY challenge, consider building your own copper still, which will allow you to distill your own spirits for DIY whiskey, vodka, gin, or brandy. (Or tequila, I guess...if you can get your hands on a giant agave piña.)

You may have been told that the less desirable effects of alcohol - the disturbed sleep, the morning-after headaches, the drama in your gut - come from dehydration, or impurities from barrel aging, or mixing spirits, wine, and beer in a single session. I've always thought (or, um, learned) that it's the sugar in sweeter drinks that does the deed, coupled with the dehydrating effects...but, even if you DO drink water, or don't have multiple spirits, the effects can still be intense.

Summer is the best time for trying all kinds of new, cold drinks. While winter drinks almost always warm you up, summer cocktails are much more context-specific: are you hanging out in the backyard on super hot day? Enjoying an early evening cookout? Staying out for fire-lit evening? There's the right drink for that.

Huh. The Daily Beast shares that most bottles of 'craft' whiskey - those determined by branding using phrases like "small batch," "handcrafted," "artisanal," and always with a local designation, probably come from a huge, macro distillery in Southern Indiana.

Summer weekends are the perfect time to test out a new cocktail. Stop by the store on the way home from work, grab a new bottle and some citrus, and spend the rest of the weekend gathering with friends and nailing it down, just right.

This weekend, I'll be trying out an update on my number one, very favorite, easy-to-order-cause-its-hard-to-mess-up-unless-they-shake-it cocktail, the Negroni, by cocktail blogger Emily Arden Wells.

Spring isn't the time for making complicated drinks...infusing spirits and boiling special syrups. It's the season for getting outside as much as possible, enjoying the ever-later evenings, and embracing simplicity.

Most have heard, and can quote, the famous line attributed (probably inappropriately) to Benjamin Franklin, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." And plenty of us have likely created our adages to remind ourselves of experiences with tequila, wine, or some other overindulgence. But, throughout the last few hundred years, many of our greatest writers, thinkers, and humorists have dedicated their lines to that most aged and crafted of spirits: whiskey.

Some guys have their go-to libation: no matter the time, no matter the place, they want this beer or that drink, and the matter really isn't up for discussion. Others are constantly switching up their poisons, perusing the menu for familiar flavors, taking the advice of the bartender, or simply having what everyone else at the table ordered.

Do me a favor this St. Patrick's Day: skip the green beer. Please. But, while you're not drinking that silliness, do try some Irish Whiskey. Often overlook by bourbon and Scotch drinkers, the Irish whiskey tradition is as old as it is varied. In fact, they kinda invented it.

Some guys have their go-to libation: no matter the time, no matter the place, they want this beer or that drink, and the matter really isn't up for discussion. Others are constantly switching up their poisons, perusing the menu for familiar flavors, taking the advice of the bartender, or simply having what everyone else at the table ordered.